New research by analytics platform DappRadar has revealed the extent to which decentralized finance (DeFi) and nonfungible token (NFT) markets have grown this year.
In its Thursday “Value Flow Report,” DappRadar reported that recent trends have seen sizable growth in NFTs and blockchain gaming but that DeFi is also still generating substantial value.
“Although the value flows to some extent from DeFi to NFTs, it appears that both categories are generating value independently.”
The research delved into Ethereum-based DeFi, which is still the dominant force in the sector despite the emergence of rival networks such as Binance Smart Chain (BSC), Solana and Avalanche. Value has continued to flow in with wrapped Ether (wETH) up 400% since July 2020 and stablecoins Tether (USDT) and Dai increasing by 1,300% and 500% over the same period, respectively.
DappRadar currently reports a total value locked of $114.8 billion, which is an increase of 936% since the same time last year. The report added that the industry’s total value locked (TVL) grew 75% between July 23 and Sept. 5, reaching a peak of $195 billion across all chains.
DappRadar did suggest that using TVL was not a good way to measure the movement of value.
“Whilst TVL is one of the most important metrics to assess the current state of Decentralized Finance, it is not a metric to understand value flow movement. The TVL is completely dependent on the underlying asset, thus, providing a false optic from the value perspective.”